Spring 2009

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Mastering Life and a Master's Degree Through Distance Education

By Barbara McBreen

Mark Bogner isn’t a typical graduate student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

He has a fulltime job, lives in Walnut, Ill., where he and his wife have two children under the age of two, and he’s a student in ISU’s Master of Science in Agronomy Distance Education Program.

He does a lot of juggling, but the college’s distance education program provides the flexibility he needs to pursue a master’s degree in agronomy. He’s also a runner and a morning person, which he says helps him stay on track with his graduate work.

“Someone thinking about this program needs to anticipate the time commitment,” Bogner says. “You have to schedule your time so you’re not taking too much time away from any one thing. The classwork is demanding and it’s a challenge to balance the course material with your daily life.”

After graduating from Illinois State University with a degree in agriculture, he wanted to work on his master’s degree at the same institution. But he was sidetracked and moved to Hawaii to work for Pioneer Hi-Bred International. Bogner still wanted to pursue a master’s degree, so his coworkers suggested the master’s of agronomy program at Iowa State.

“The M.S. in Agronomy program fits with what I do in the workplace and it’s bolstered my knowledge in my job,” says Bogner who is a soybean research associate at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. “Our main focus in soybean breeding is improving yields, and we do this by incorporating strong defensive and agronomic traits into our soybean varieties,” Bogner says.

Currently 110 students are enrolled in the Master of Science in Agronomy Program. Courses for the program are delivered via the Internet and CDs. Students use a variety of ways to communicate with professors, from emails to phone calls to the latest social networking and software options.

The technology allows students to access the program from anywhere in the world. Bogner was able to begin the program while working in Hawaii and continue his degree work when he moved back to Illinois.

Last summer Bogner came to Ames to take one of the required on-campus classes. He says seeing the campus and meeting professors helped him put names with faces and places.

“My professors also have done some live interactions on the Web and that’s been neat. It allowed us to communicate and get to know some of the people in the class,” Bogner says.

The pursuit of a master’s degree has already allowed Bogner to advance professionally within Pioneer. He expects the experience will continue to be beneficial after he graduates in December.

STORIES online Extra:

Distance Education Opportunities in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences The Master of Science in Agronomy Program, administrated through the agronomy department, is one of the six graduate degrees offered by the college to students at a distance. The Iowa State University Brenton Center for Agricultural Instruction and Technology Transfer coordinates the college’s distance education offerings for both credit and noncredit courses. Currently 75 online graduate courses are available allowing professionals to pursue advanced degrees without disrupting their professional careers. The Brenton Center has an enrollment of 1,670 students from both on- and off-campus. For more information go to www.agde.iastate.edu or contact Lori Youngberg at lyoung@iastate.edu or (515) 294-7656.